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Sunday, June 28, 2015

Sd.Kfz.2 Kleines Kettenkrad

Here are some images of Dragon's 1/6 scale Sd.Kfz.2 Kleines Kettenkrad.
A model this size demands a model engine... it didn't come with one.
Dragon should fire their people who make the instructions as they are terrible, which is typical for Dragon. It's a good thing I had the ESCI 1/9 Kettenkrad for reference.

From Wikipedia"The SdKfz 2, better known as the Kleines Kettenkraftrad HK 101 or Kettenkrad for short (Ketten = chain/tracks, krad = military abbreviation of the German word Kraftrad,
the administrative German term for motorcycle), started its life as a
light tractor for airborne troops. The vehicle was designed to be
delivered by Junkers Ju 52
aircraft, though not by parachute. The vehicle had the advantage of
being the only gun tractor small enough to fit inside the hold of the Ju
52, and was the lightest mass-produced German military vehicle to use
the complex Schachtellaufwerk overlapped and interleaved road wheels used on almost all German military half-track vehicles of World War II.Steering the Kettenkrad was accomplished by turning the handlebars:
Up to a certain point, only the front wheel would steer the vehicle. A
motion of the handlebars beyond that point would engage the track brakes
to help make turns sharper. It was also possible to run the vehicle
without the front wheel installed and this was recommended in extreme
off-road conditions where speed would be kept low.The SdKfz 2 was designed and built by the NSU Werke AG at Neckarsulm, Germany. First designed and patented in June 1939, it was first used in the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Later in the war Stoewer from Stettin also produced Kettenkrads under license, accounting for about 10% of the total production.Most Kettenkrads saw service on the Eastern Front, where they were used to lay communication cables, pull heavy loads and carry soldiers through the deep Russian mud. Later in the war, Kettenkrads were used as runway tugs for aircraft, especially for both the Me 262 jet fighter, and sometimes the Arado Ar 234
jet reconnaissance-bomber. In order to save aviation fuel, A German jet
aircraft would be towed to the runway, rather than taxiing under their
own power.The vehicle was also used in the North African theater and on the Western Front.The Kettenkrad came with a special trailer (Sd.Anh.1) that could be attached to it to improve its cargo capacity.Being a tracked vehicle, the Kettenkrad could climb up to 24° in sand and even more on hard ground.Only two significant sub-variations of the Kettenkrad were
constructed. Production of the vehicle was stopped in 1944, at which
time 8,345 had been built. After the war, production resumed at NSU.
Around 550 Kettenkräder were built for agricultural use, with production
ending in 1948 (some sources say 1949).